Satya Robyn leads a Buddhist group practice session on aging, mortality, vocation, and mindfulness. The group chants together, takes refuge vows, and discusses how to take one thing at a time.
Chapters
Welcome to Saturday morning practice.
We've got Tony and Keima joining us on Zoom, and Satya and Dave are here with us, with me, in the shrine room. And Satya's leading practice this morning, and I'm going to be—
and I'm going to be— so I have two Dharma talks vying for attention in my head this morning, and it often makes a difference to me who's present. Different dharma talks want to be spoken when different people are here, so I'm just wondering which of the two to say, or a completely different one. Satsya Robyn. Yeah, so there have been some big kind of life questions coming up recently for me, and that's partly because of leaving the order and questions about who I am now as a Buddhist teacher, or what Bright Earth is, or what the future might look like. And also I've got a friend who's very ill, so there's questions about mortality coming up. And I've got a a part now that notices what age people die at. So when people in the media die, there's a part that notices the age and then takes that age away from my age, or, you know, in some cases realizes that I've already lived longer than that person. So thoughts about, you know, I don't know how much time I've got left, but it's definitely less than I did when I was 20. How might I want to use that time, or what might life have in store for me over the next 5, 10, 20, hopefully 30 years? And sometimes those thoughts are helpful, and sometimes they just take me in a kind of spiral of trying to be in control of things I'm not in control of, trying to work things out that I'm not ready to work out, wanting to plan everything financially, and, you know, things that I don't necessarily have some control over, but I don't necessarily have complete control over. And at times like that, when my brain starts getting a bit overloaded, I sometimes ask the Buddha for advice, and the answer so far has been the same: just concentrate on what you're doing right now. So I had this swirl of thoughts going around when I was sitting in my vigil, my daily vigil, a couple of days ago. I sat in the middle of town with my placard around my neck, thinking about doing sums in my head and trying to work out how to get a retirement cottage, and then worrying that I might be bored. And I asked the Buddha for help, and the Buddha said, 'You're here sitting vigil for the Earth, that's what you're doing right now, so it's okay, you can just do that.' And that was a very settling thought because it just allowed me to, to do that one thing and not to do it perfectly. And of course my brain went off on another diversion minutes later, but there was a reminder that usually we know the next thing that we need to do. This morning, Casper came into the shrine room and I heard the hoover going. 5 minutes later, I went down to put flowers, fresh flowers, in the alcove for when we do garden practice in 45 minutes, 40 minutes. And it needed sweeping, so I swept. And that doesn't always mean that the things we do are just those immediate things. That yesterday I had some feelings come up, some things happened and I was overwhelmed with feelings, and then when the feelings come up, the most important thing, if possible, is to just pause and attend to the feelings, or give them some space, or Allow them to be there. And sometimes when I have concerns about how much I've got in my diary, rather than just doing the next thing, the next practical thing, the right thing might be to sit down and look properly at what's going on and think about what I can hand over to other people, or make a plan that means that I'll have less in my diary in the future. But we just take one thing at a time, and when we focus on one thing at a time, my experience is that there's something grounding about that, that it just brings us back into this moment Here I am, I have choices, and it might be, you know, the washing up needs to be done, but I'm also exhausted, so the choice at this moment is to watch something trashy on TV. That's also an appropriate choice sometimes. And the Buddha can help us with these decisions. As we're reminded that all of our reality, all of the different voices inside our head, they're all valid, they're all understandable from the position of the voice. So the bits of us that beat ourselves up have good reason for doing that, they think they're helping. The bits of us that are jealous, the bits of us that are the codependent, or the overwork, or the overeat, or the obsess over tidiness. All of those different voices in us are seen by the Buddha and accepted by the Buddha. The Buddha gets why they are like they are, how they are, even if we don't. And there's space for them all. So the next thing for us 5—
we've now got Kaymer, Angela, and Izzy as well joining us, so 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 people.
Kaymer was here before.
Yeah, okay.
Kaymer and Tony.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
So there's someone that you haven't said who was not there anyway, doesn't matter.
Tony Kusama.
Kusama. Okay, welcome everybody. I like to know who's here. So us 8, the next thing for us is to be quiet, and in the quiet you can allow the Nembutsu to roll through your mind. You can just lean into the lap of the Buddha. Or the massive— I sometimes like to be in a part, the palm of the Buddha, like a huge hand, just soft and cupped gently. Or you can imagine walking around the temple garden with us, which we will be doing shortly. Some of you will just have to join us in spirit for that. So whatever the silence is calling you to do, whatever you need You can just do that. And of course, there will be, uh, your brain will do all kinds of other things as well. Just, just let it do those things and settle back into the one thing. We're gonna chant together to connect with Shakyamuni Buddha, and the words are Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Satya Muni Sva Ha. That's Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Satya Muni Sva Ha. And they'll appear in the chat box.
Om Muni Shakyamunisvaha! Om Muni Muni Mahamuni Shakya Munisvaha! Om Muni Muni Mahamuni Shakya Munisvaha! Om Muni muni maham uni shakya munisvaha! Om Muni muni maham uni satya muniswaha! Om Muni muni maham uni sakya muniswaha! Um— um... Om Nama'hamune Shakya munesvaha! Om Nama'hamune Sakya munesvaha! Om Namahamuneshakya munisva'a— Om muni munimaha mumishakhyamunisvah! Ohm Mune Munima Hamuna Shakhya Mumisha Ki Amunas Vahaha—Om Mukhe Mushumma Ha Manushakiyamanuswacha...Ohmmu Nimmunnimagha Momonichakyamamnisvaaha. Hohhm Mu Nei Moonee Mahaa Moooney Sha Kyay Moonies Vaaha? Oom Meeneemoonie Maamaa Moorney Shaktiya Monnyswaaha?! Om Namo Narayana Mani Shakya Munisvaha! Om Namo Narayana Mani Sakya Munisvaha! Om Namo Narayana Mani Sakya Munisvaha! Om muni munimaha mine shakhyam une svahha! Hom Mune Munima ha Mine Shakhiyaa Mane Svahaha! Ahm-munem-umne ma-ha-munei Shakyam Une Sva-aHAH— Ohh-my-nee-meeneema-a-mmee-nay sha-khee-yaaa meeneee sva-AHHAHa! Auh my nee meenee mah-ammm ee nay shakyama -neh swa-HAH-haaaa... Hoh meuu-nei-meoneemooha Meenie Sha-Khya Moonies Va-raaahaahhh? Om mune muhne mahamuhneh shakhya muhnesvaha! Om mune muhne ma hamuneh satya muhneswaha! Ohm munem unhema ha-munesh Shakyamuni Swahaa... Om muni munim mahamunishakhyamunnisvaha! Ahm-mu-ni mu-nee ma-ha-mune shakyamunnies-vah-a— ahmm... om mul nee muhneemaa ha mmoneeshakkhya mammieesva. Ha-mm? Oh my God I'm just so tired right now but let's do it one more time for you guys because this was really good fun to make together here on YouTube today or Twitter space video chat thingy that we were doing before stream start started 15 minutes ago?! It looks like an hour already has passed by anyway um okay there goes our power again uh oh someone should go get some batteries up ahead of us if they can't hear me anymore haha heheh hommeeneehmuneeema hamoonichekkyammuneswa haaaom-me-neemoon-eemmaha-moooney-shaktiya-mooneswaaaa Om Namo Narayana Manohara Mune Shakya Munisvaha! Om Namahamuneshakya Munishakyamanushvakha! Om muni Mune mahamunishakhyamunnisvaha! Ahm-mu-ni mu-nee ma-ha mun-ishakyamunnis-vah-a— ahmm... om muni muh-nee mahaa mushakeemoonnisvaaha— Aum Munimuhne MahamaanishaKiamUnniSwaHaA um mum ney mudney mmahaha shaktiyom unmunes vah—a-AhM? Ooh meeny mooney Ma-Hammoooneeshakteo Moonies VaH-aAh?! Oh my God I'm so sorry for that mistake guys!! Yeah okay let's try again here we go oh man this was really bad ughhh anyway back to it now wow beautiful sounds today people thank you very much wow amazing energy going on right there yeah cool stuff happening from our friends over at Kali Yoga Center India hey everyone welcome home peace be upon all of us hmmm how do they speak Hindi huh what does he say when someone speaks Sanskrit uh no idea but maybe something like namaste or hello Namasté Hare Krishna Jai Shiva Ramana Maharshi Swami Vivekananda Ji please bless them always Amen amen Om Amma Mooji Sadhguru Baba Sri Yukteswar Guru Paramashivaji Please Bless Them Always Thank You Babajii See ya next time ameen ke baar omskshachkyamamani swaha haOm MuNey MoOnEy MaHA MUNeE SHAKtyAmUOneES VAhaAA HaOMMuNEY MOONEY MAHA MUONEESH AKTYAMUNIES VAAAHHAAAA Namo Narayana Manohara Muni Shakya Munisvaha! Om Namahamunishakyamunisvaha! Om Nimune Mahamunishakyamuniswaha! Om Nimune Maharajmunishakya Munisvaha! Om Namo Namaha Mani Shakhyam Munisvah!
For refuge I go to Buddha . For refuge I go to Dharma , for refuge I go to Dharmaya or Namo Buddhaya—Namo Buddhaya! Nam-myoho-renge-kyo... Namo Dhammaya— for refuge I go to the Sangha —
Namo Sanghaya—
Namah Samgaha— With faith in the Three Jewels— —I pray that I may not take life. With faith in the Three Jewels— —I pray that I may not steal. I pray that I may not steal— With faith in The Three Jewels! —With Faith In The 3 jewels... I prayed it might fall into sexual misconduct?
...with faith in The Three Jewels! ...With Faith Into Regionals...
Pray That It May Not Fall Into Wrong Speech?! "Praying So They Might Have Faulted Around" Speakers' Translation of Thai Scripture With by Bhikkhu Brahmachari Poonchitthiranathana Suttananda from Thailand). faith in the Three Jewels, with faith in the Three Jewels, I pray that I may avoid intoxication.
I pray that I may avoid intoxication. Innumerable are sentient beings. We vow to save them all. Inexhaustible are deluded passions. We vow to transform them all. Immeasurable are the Dharma teachings. We vow to master them all. Infinite is the Buddha's way.
We vow to fulfill it completely. Namoha mi tamu. Namoha mi tamu. Namoha mi tamu. Namoha mi. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida. Namoh Amida.
So we'll recite the closing verse together.
Excuse me.
Blessed by Amitabha's light, may we care for all living things and know each other. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. So just to let people know that I finished really early today because we need to go downstairs for quarter to. We won't be able to chat to people after the Zoom and here. We will today because you finished very early. Yeah. But what usually happens is we'll go straight downstairs for outside practice, but in June when we can have people in the room again, we'll swap it around so we do the garden first and then we'll come here, and that'll mean that we'll have a cup of tea afterwards and be able to talk to people. And the donation button, the donation link is in the chat. Lovely to see you, Namo Amitabha. Namo Amitabha. Why are you laughing?
